Kaiser
Kaiser is a German-Italian wizard currently in his sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He started his third year at Hogwarts in September 2096 at the age of fourteen and was sorted into Slytherin. He is currently a part-time resident of Stemp House. Personality and Key Characteristics Kaiser is charismatic and confident, two personality traits which have helped him get by in life throughout his childhood. Despite this charismatic persona that he has built up, he is generally a very quiet, introverted person who likes his own company. Nevertheless, he is personable and friendly, and finds it very easy to make friends and get along with people. Kaiser has a tendency to overthink and talk himself into bad headspaces, and in this respect he is his own worst enemy. He also has a volatile side that can be triggered by specific actions or provocations, particularly when he is in a troubled frame of mind. He also feels his guilt very intensely. Because of this guilt - and his past actions - Kaiser often views himself in a negative light, believing himself to be a bad person at heart, afraid of his own anger even when it is unlikely to lead to any serious consequences. His biggest fear that he will lose control of his emotions again. In order to avoid physically lashing out at people he distances himself from others when he feels those emotions resurfacing. It is difficult to get Kaiser to open up about the more significant events in his life, but that is not to say he is completely closed off; he is willing to tell his friends about parts of his background, rather than be evasive or try to make an entire history up. An adventurous person by nature, Kaiser is unable to stay in one place for very long without feeling incredibly restless; while at school, he tries to fend off this feeling by exploring the castle and grounds, climbing the buildings, or by getting to know new people, though he also frequently leaves school overnight. He likes his freedom and his independence and, if he decides he doesn’t want to stay somewhere, it is very difficult to keep him there. Kaiser also has plenty of social and street smarts and cunning, and is very astute and observant. Due to the way he grew up, Kaiser is generally very suspicious of and sometimes resistant to authority, he hates rules and regulations and resents having other people in charge of his life when he is used to being in control. Though he sometimes openly rebels, this is usually carefully weighed up against the probable consequences, and whether he will benefit or suffer in the long term. At school, he does not follow rules very closely, and though he is generally careful about avoiding being caught he is acutely aware that the consequences are nothing to worry about compared to the real world. He does try hard to avoid situations which would result in his being expelled, as he wanted to go to Hogwarts for such a long time. Kaiser’s strengths are his charisma, the fact that he is not afraid of a challenge, and his street smarts. Among his weaknesses are his avoidance of commitment, his volatility, and the fact that he can’t always resist the urge to wind people up. Kaiser has particularly bad insomnia, which always eases off slightly whenever he is back on the streets. He often goes two or three days with very little or no sleep at all, which greatly affects his functioning and clarity of mind. He is rather troubled and also prone to severe mood swings, which are usually made worse by lack of sleep. One of Kaiser's internal conflicts at the present time is that of his sexuality, which he has felt uncertain about since around his fourth year, and started seriously questioning in his fifth year. Now, going into his sixth year, he still has no idea where he falls on that spectrum, and it doesn't help that he is extremely lacking in knowledge on the matter in general. Kaiser speaks with a mixed German-Italian accent, with strong Mancunian influences, due to the fact that he was living in Manchester while learning and developing the majority of his English skills. However, he has a tendency to quickly and unintentionally pick up other people's accents, and the more time he spends with a person, the more their accent will be mirrored in his own speech. Interests and Abilities 'Climbing: '''Kaiser has a preternatural ability to scale buildings which should, by all accounts, be impossible to climb. He has been climbing since he was around five years old, and steadily became more daring as he grew older. Kaiser has never fallen whilst climbing and maintains that he never will. He also climbs trees from time to time but finds them far too easy, and prefers the challenge of the buildings to help him clear his mind. Kaiser has accessed areas of the castle he should not rightly be allowed into, purely by scaling the buildings and climbing in through open windows. He spends a lot of time on the roof of wherever he's staying, be it a children's home or school. '''Languages: '''Kaiser is multilingual and has an extraordinary aptitude for picking up languages. For the first five years of his life he was raised speaking both German and Italian as his first languages, as his mother was German and he himself was born in Italy and presumably had an Italian father. Kaiser is completely fluent in German and Italian. He is also proficient in Russian, as he had a friend who hailed from Russia and who frequently taught him the language. His French, Spanish, and Estonian are all at a conversational level; these are languages he has picked up on his travels. Kaiser also knows scattered words and phrases from various other languages. He is currently interested in learning Romanian, Hungarian, Latin, and Gobbledegook. '''Performer: '''Though Kaiser owns a guitar and performs with it on the street for money, his playing ability is limited to just four chords. His singing is only average too. The thing that really brings in the money when Kaiser plays is his natural charisma and ability to play to a crowd. '''Stealth: '''One of Kaiser's most useful abilities is his ability to go unnoticed. He is incredibly stealthy and has a knack for slipping past people (especially muggles) wiithout causing them to blink an eye. He has a naturally quiet tread and a tendency to accidentally sneak up on people. This has been useful in the past, especially in evading authorities or stealing without being noticed. In tandem with his stealth, Kaiser is a highly skilled pickpocket. History and Early Life Pre-Life and Early Life Kaiser was born unexpectedly in Florence, Italy, on 31st December 2081 to Aurora Kaiser, a German pureblood witch living as a muggle and with no fixed address, who had had no idea she was pregnant. Though shocked and terrified at what the future would hold now that she had another young life depending on her, Aurora loved her son with all of her heart and did what she could to provide for him. During his early years, Kaiser and his mother moved constantly around Europe with their friend Nikolai Antonov, and Kaiser was raised as speaking both German and Italian as his first languages, with a smattering of Russian, courtesy of Nikolai. They lived completely off the grid in accordance with the way Aurora had been living since she was thirteen years old. When Kaiser was five, he witnessed his mother's murder. Pre-Hogwarts After his mother died, Kaiser was left to fend for himself. He was not, however, completely alone, having the guidance of Nikolai when he absolutely needed it, though Nikolai was also homeless. Kaiser became part of a community of street kids, and quickly learned how to handle himself, and continued to go undetected. He struck out from this community as he grew older, and started fending for himself in day to day life. When he was ten, Kaiser found an old guitar with its strings cut, something someone had thrown away, and claimed it for himself. He acquired some strings from someone he knew, who also showed him how to put them on the guitar and play a few basic chords, and he started performing on the street for money. When he was eleven, Kaiser was located by a wizarding social worker who informed him that he was a wizard. She took him to Winterhaus Wohngruppe, a wizarding children's home in Germany, where he was supposed to stay until he started at Durmstrang. Unhappy about staying there, he repeatedly ran away and was brought back again, until he realised that his use of accidental magic was giving away his location. While doing his best to repress his magic, Kaiser began to search for Nikolai to try to get some more information about his mother, and whether she had also been magical, but Nikolai had completely disappeared. For the next couple of years, Kaiser continued to evade the authorities and travelled for some time as he continued to look for Nikolai, until shortly after his 13th birthday when his social worker caught up with him once again. At this point, Kaiser agreed with the suggestion of going to stay with a foster family, finally admitting to himself that he was unlikely to find Nikolai given that he had checked all the usual places numerous times and heard nothing. Shortly after moving in with a German foster family who lived in the Grunewald, the decision was made that Kaiser would attend Hogwarts instead of Durmstrang, for a variety of reasons. He was moved to a muggle children's home in Manchester, which had housed muggleborn Hogwarts students in the past, meaning that the owner already had a vague understanding of Hogwarts. It was agreed that Kaiser would be tutored for the next year and a half, so that he might catch up on his studies enough to attend Hogwarts, and that once he began school he would be held back a year. He spent this time taking intensive English lessons (having had a very basic grip on the language before this), learning to read and write, and completing the first two years of magical schooling. He was also assigned a mentor for at-risk wizarding youth, a Hit Wizard by the name of Jake Upstead. Hogwarts Third Year (2096 - 2097) On 1st September, Kaiser took the Hogwarts Express to school for the first time ever to start his third year. He was sorted into Slytherin house, though the hat did also consider Gryffindor. At the opening feast, he met Gunnar McCarthy, his new dormmate, and learned that they had the German language in common. The feast, however, was soon interrupted by the arrival of a new headmaster and professor who had been appointed by the board of governors, and which marked the start of a new regime at Hogwarts. The first day of term, Kaiser and the rest of the students were woken up at dawn by a blaring alarm and an announcement that everyone was to report to the Quidditch pitch. They were then informed that everyone would take part in Special Obligatory Running Exercises (S.O.R.E.) laps every morning from that point onwards - the penalty for not doing so included the word TROLL appearing on the student's face, spelled out in boils. Kaiser owned neither running shoes nor clothes suitable for running on, so he ran in his jeans, a t-shirt, and a pair of boots, later stealing a pair of trainers from another Slytherin (and charming them a different colour) so that he could run in relative comfort. He wrote to his social worker regarding the matter and was sent a pair of trainers and shorts for christmas, at which point he returned the stolen trainers. Throughout the term, Kaiser grew increasingly restless what with being cooped up in a school for the first time in his life, and the added rules did little to help this. To help combat this, he spent a lot of his time climbing school buildings. When he befriended Kodee Chosen, he taught him how to do the same. Schoolwork was incredibly difficult for Kaiser, not only because he was having to learn in a language he had only recently started to master, but also because of the fact that formal learning was still very new to him. He bonded with Kodee, who took remedial lessons for some of his classes, over their difficulties and school woes, and this ultimately made it much more bearable. Kaiser passed the year with average enough grades, though he skipped more homework assignments than he actually completed. Fourth Year (2097 - 2098) Fourth year was the year of unbridled angst for Kaiser. Even before school started, he spent his time wandering around Manchester, sometimes not returning to the children's home for days at a time, and getting lost in his thoughts. Once back at school, even though the regime of the previous year was over, Kaiser's restlessness over being cooped up in the castle returned. He continued to struggle with overthinking and dwelling on thoughts and memories, which made his insomnia (which he had struggled with ever since getting off the streets) even worse. Throughout the year, Kaiser would frequently take secret trips out of school and into muggle London, which helped him to cope with his feelings of being trapped. He was also invited by Kodee to the Chosen household for christmas, an invitation Kaiser gratefully accepted, as his only other plans were to stay in the castle. While there, he had a late night one-to-one conversation with Jolie Chosen, which was around the time he started to consider her a good friend, and also when he realised she was likely the smartest person he knew. Later in the term, Kaiser and Kodee were smashing things in the Room of Requirement and Kaiser opened up for the first time, revealing a few things about himself to Kodee that had long been kept secret, namely his history with the muggle police. It was during fourth year that Kaiser had the idea to send an owl to Nikolai, given the creatures' uncanny ability to find whoever their letters were addressed to. Kaiser's reasoning was that if Nikolai was still alive, the owl would find him and he could let him know that he was okay and where he was, and get a response as to where Nikolai was in return. Kaiser sent five separate school owls off with exactly the same letter, imploring Nikolai to send a letter back with the same owl. Four of the owls were back within a day. The fifth one returned a week later, but the letter had been unopened. Kaiser gave up any hope that his friend was still alive. Elsewhere in the school, numerous things had been going missing all term, from care packages to couches. It soon became clear that fluffy pink mutants were behind it all, which was especially apparent when said fluffy pink mutants ate an entire professor. This certainly put a bit of a dampener on the year. Once again, Kaiser's grades by the end of the year were just at the edges of passable. While not spectacular or even really good enough to be considered average, they still allowed him to progress into fifth year. Fifth Year (2098 - 2099) At the start of the summer after the end of his fourth year, Kaiser ran away from his muggle children's home, going instead to London, and picking pockets or playing his guitar on the streets for money. He slept in an old building for a short while, until the building was boarded up one day when he was out performing in the city, preventing easy access. For the remainder of the summer, Kaiser slept on the streets, much like he had done in the past. More than once he got into a physical fight with brash muggles looking for an easy target to pick on. He also frequented Diagon Alley to pick pockets and busk for money - until he broke two strings on his guitar - in order to try and save up for the necessary investments of floo powder and apparition lessons. Kaiser did not buy any school supplies in the summer before his fifth year as he spent so long trying to talk himself into spending his precious money that he ran out of time. He had lost track of time by the end of the summer, and ended up missing the train, as well as his last opportunity to buy school supplies. He made his own way to the school via floo powder and secret passageways, and arrived at the Start of Term Feast only an hour after he realised he should have been on the train. Before he could make it inside the Great Hall, however, he was intercepted by Headmaster Trent, who had been informed that he had not made it onto the train. After it was ascertained that he was okay (and once he had gone to take a much-needed shower), Kaiser joined the rest of the students at the feast. The next day he was properly checked over by the new healer (and Ancient Runes professor), Professor Beryl, who worked on fixing him up, partly with rune magic. Not long after term started, Kaiser started to get letters from his social worker, at first berating him for running away when one of the conditions of his move to the UK was that he stay put, and then eventually informing him that he was going to be moved to another children's home. After a short while, he was told he had a place at Stemp House as a part-time resident. Kaiser moved into the home over the christmas holidays, deciding that he would simply leave once he turned seventeen and that nobody would be able to stop him as he would be legally of age. However, two weeks at Stemp House was enough to convince Kaiser that maybe the place wasn't so bad. He turned seventeen and decided not to leave, at least not until summer - though part of him knew that he wanted to stay. Back at school, and the weather was starting to cause problems. So far in the term, distressed creatures had been fleeing the forest, apparently trying to escape the mist that was descending around the castle and grounds. Eventually the mist made it so that it was impossible to leave the castle, which meant that Kaiser was unable to climb the buildings. Nor was he tempted to (though he did miss it) when it seemed that two students had been lost to the mist and had not been seen since. Eventually an evacuation took place, and everyone from the school took one of the passageways to Hogsmeade in order to stay there until the end of term. Kaiser took the opportunity to slip away unnoticed for the night, and went to wizarding London. While there, he encountered a young man named Daxton who openly and unabashedly used Legilimency on him, dragging up all kinds of memories just to satisfy his own curiosity. This brought back fresh thoughts and feelings that Kaiser didn't know how to cope with, and once he returned back to Hogsmeade he became despondent, full of guilt about some of his past actions, and hugely upset about everything that had suddenly returned to haunt him. He skipped all of his remaining classes and avoided people as much as he could. When the time came to sit his OWL exams, Kaiser refused to attend any of them, with the reasoning that he didn't deserve the opportunities they would bring him. He also decided he didn't deserve a place a Stemp House or at Hogwarts, and made plans to run away and return to something resembling his old life as soon as he could that coming summer. Sixth Year (2099 - 2100) Summer arrived and Kaiser returned to London on the Hogwarts Express with almost everyone else. After being transported back to Stemp House with the other part-time residents, he disappeared to his room and sorted through his belongings, setting aside his school books and robes and keeping only essentials and his wand. Not dithering for even a moment, lest he start to change his mind, Kaiser climbed out of the window and left Stemp House. Though he was of age and, in his mind, perfectly entitled to leave if he so wanted, Kaiser preferred to avoid the possibility of being swayed from his decision and so told no-one that he was leaving. He made it to France with very few issues, and from there set off for Florence, Italy, the city of his birth. Once he arrived, he was faced with the harsh reality of his situation and everything he had chosen to leave behind, and so decided it was best to keep moving as much as he could. Kaiser travelled all around Italy, staying in abandoned buildings when he could but mostly sleeping on the streets (now that he was older, practically everyone ignored him, and he no longer had to worry about being reported to social services), stealing to get by as his heart simply wasn't in performing with his guitar. For over a month, Kaiser continued this way, until someone from the wizarding world finally caught up with him. The man who had been Kaiser's mentor since he had moved to the UK, Jake Upstead, had managed to track him down to Italy, and then to Florence specifically, where he had returned to. Jake had been searching for Kaiser for some time, and finally happened upon him by pure chance in late July, outside the Duomo di Firenze. Though Kaiser initially tried to run away from him, he agreed to sit and talk when Jake told him he wasn't going to force him to return, especially given Kaiser was legally of age and could technically do what he wanted. Kaiser opted not to tell Jake any of the details about what had made him leave, declaring only that it was something he had needed to do, that he did not deserve to have qualifications and opportunities, though he did vaguely mention that he had done awful things in the past. The two spoke for a long time, until night had fallen around them, though at first the conversation largely went around in circles. Jake brought up Kaiser's Hogwarts friends, whom he had left behind without a word, and bluntly said that regardless of what Kaiser deserved, his friends did not deserve to be left behind so callously. Though Kaiser tried to argue that it was in their best interests, he couldn't help but start to feel guilty about those he had left behind, especially the friends like Gunnar who had gone out of their way to help him in the month before he had left. He and Jake continued to talk until the early hours of the morning, and Kaiser started to be worn down; he had never truly wanted to leave, only done so as a way of being self-destructive and because he thought it was what he deserved, so it wasn't difficult for Jake to make him want to come back. Jake insisted that whatever Kaiser had done in the past, it didn't define him now, that he was still only seventeen and that nobody deserved to be defined by the actions they had chosen when they were children; Kaiser tried to believe this, but doubt and guilt still gripped him. Even so, as the sky started to lighten again, Kaiser finally agreed to return for the sake of not leaving his friends behind, but reminded Jake of the issue that he hadn't taken his OWLs, and probably wouldn't be allowed to be held back a second year. Jake, relieved that Kaiser had agreed to come back with him, assured him they would try to make arrangements. He apparated Kaiser to the Ministero della Magia Italiano and, with Kaiser as a translator, organised a portkey back to Stemp House. Once back at the children's home, Kaiser found multiple letters that had been sent to him by Gunnar, who had been trying to contact him over the weeks he had been missing. Already feeling guilty about having attempted to disappear without a word, Kaiser wrote back and agreed on a visit. He also had to speak to the counsellor at Stemp House, though he neglected to say anything of great import regarding why he had left, or indeed anything else that was haunting him. Not long after returning, Kaiser also took the test for his Apparition licence at the Ministry of Magic. He also encountered Evan during the summer, and apparated them both to Manchester so they could get away and hang out for a while, but their encounter took an unexpected turn when she kissed him. Kaiser reciprocated, and later initiated a kiss with her, despite knowing she had a boyfriend. Both Kaiser's social worker and his mentor made every effort to re-arrange his OWL exams that summer, and put in an application to the Wizarding Examinations Authority to request this on the grounds of extenuating circumstances. Before long Kaiser received a letter informing him that he was to take his exams at the ministry starting mid-August, so that he could receive his expedited results before the start of the next school term. Due to the events of the previous term, and the fact that the mist situation had still not been resolved, the staff and students of Hogwarts were to be hosted at Beauxbatons Academy of Magic for the 2099-2100 term, as was reported in an article in The Daily Prophet. Once Kaiser received his results on 1st September, informing him that he had achieved four OWLs - two, to his utter shock, at Exceeds Expectations, he joined the rest of the students on 2nd September and travelled by carriage to Beauxbatons, feeling incredibly out of place in amongst all of the grandeur. ''seeing drew at the feast which is a big yikes because he's evan's boyfriend and he's been trying not to think about either of them since the kiss(es) // sleeping in the broom closet // except not sleeping bc the insomnia is real this year // first years are everywhere // exploring beauxbatons, finding the inquisitorial hall, sitting in a big fancy chair, headmistress desmarais unhappy, TBC // being turned into a duck boy during a supposed yoga thing (where the announcement about a ball was made) // chaos in care of magical creatures // finding more chaos in the observatory // gay? straight? left? right? up? down? who knows? not kaiser // turns 18 @ stemp house // run up to the ball, kaiser not all that fussed // until a flower and a note is delivered to him by a house elf claiming to be from his secret admirer who will have a matching flower at the ball // and then he's just chilling in the dorm later and gunnar shows up and he has??? the sAme???? fLoWEr??????? // quickly realises that gunnar didn't actually send anything (lowkey disappointed bc ykw, has some pretty confusing feelings and has done since like fourth year) and then just gets in his feelings about believing he's been tricked or that someone knows stuff about him (and then gets extra twitchy because is still not over having his mind looked into) // is short with gunnar when the topic of conversation moves onto dating in general (it's complicated) and leaves // avoidance // recklessness // angst // altercation with alessandro; one of your direct punches to the face please sir // angry with gunnar for believing he sent the flower and telling alessandro he did; avoids him and everyone // summoned to a trial after the ball decorations are sabotaged and hogwarts kids are suspects, desmarais declares they all leave but then de nostredame declares a creature is responsible for things happening in the castle, then the rose garden is on fire, kaiser reluctant to help but eventually goes along, then a dragon appears while he's trying to extinguish the fire and bowls him over before heading to the beauxbatons students..... // on valentines day falls from almost the roof as he climbs down while tired and numb from cold, breaks multiple bones including fractured vertebrae (but miraculously no spinal cord damage), broken pelvis, an arm, and both femurs. also has a bad head injury. found after an unknown amount of time and brought to infirmary. unconscious for a few days. bones gradually healed up, internal bleeding from broken pelvis fixed, but the head injury is the most lasting issue, has to stay in infirmary for some time, doesn't remember what happened or anything from that day, but insists he did not fall because genuinely believes he can't have done // released from infirmary mid-march, though continues to struggle with the after effects of the head injury and is aware they are likely to persist // Accolades, Achievements, and Qualifications Hogwarts Superlatives * Most Likely to Break Out of Azkaban - Fifth Year 52 Category:Characters Category:Class of 2101 Category:Half-Blood Category:Hogwarts Category:Slytherin Category:Stemp House Residents Category:Students Category:Homeschool Alumni